January 11, 2006

London Tour start announcement likely within the month

Press conferences have been scheduled for January 24th in Paris and February 10th in London to make announcements on the British capital's Tour bid. Officials won't confirm that London has the nod, but there's no reason to hold a press conference in London to announce a Tour start in Rotterdam, Utrecht, or Lugano, the other candidates.

The Tour has visited England twice, most recently in 1994, but has never included London. The proposal, initially hatched in 2003 for the 2006 Tour, was for a 2007 Tour start, with a prologue around London landmarks, a Stage 1 from Greenwich to central London, and Stage 2 out to the coast, before a transfer across the Channel.

Any bad blood over the 2012 Olympics, awarded to London over Paris, has apparently been set aside.